As my break continues progressing, my life does not. I have been at a stagnant capacity both mentally and physically. It would be great if that stagnant pace was at an all-time high as oppose to a low, but hey, I guess consistency only comes in bad ways. That is a major part of the reason I haven't been writing as much as I would like. Oh well, bad things happen.
It could be that melancholia and free time for pondering the complexities in life, which has inspired me to write this post.
The better half of my break has been spent watching "Videoflow", a daily show on MuchMusic. It plays the video of popular top 40 videos. It's mind boggling for me to realize that I have watched this show everyday for about 3 hours, considering that I don't care for the music, nor the pornographic videos. I would understand watching it for a day, but everyday - the same videos are played everyday. No variation, no education, nothing. I think that if T.V. shows were like food, and thus included nutritional value facts, the nutritional value of Videoflow would be 0. And that is the show that has consumed my life, but that is the sad reality. In fact, it is very likely that my I.Q. has dropped a good 10 points from watching the series. My sister, who is the one who is subjecting me to the to torture, enjoys it and would never stop watching it, but I think that that comes with age, and hope that she will grow out of her stage of resentful music.
I've grown fed-up with Videoflow, and today, forced my sister to turn it off, which she took as well as could have been expected. I feel that I need to eradicate Videoflow from both of our lives, as it serves as a means for brainwashing. With about 20 days left in my break, I hope that I can avoid the sight of Videoflow.
There is one good thing which has arisen from Videoflow. A song which discuses a topic which I have never written about, but which I have discussed a great deal with my friends.
My swim club is located in a part of Vancouver with a large Balkan population, thus the ethnic makeup of my swim club is largely Balkan, myself included. This, of course, is contrary to my school, which is nearly completely Asian. As you can imagine, the mindsets, mannerisms, values and beliefs of Asian children and Balkan children are naturally very different.
I have had the pleasure of interacting with children from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds here in Vancouver. I have been inspired by them countless times, not only to write, but to think as well. As much as I love talking, I love listening to other peoples' thoughts, too. The one topic, which despite having been discussed a million times by my friends and I, has never been written about is that of leaving home.
It's a touchy subject for some, and the contrasting views I've heard on the topic are incredible. Nowadays, it is very common for children to leave home after graduating from secondary school. Sometimes, the move is out of necessity - their post-secondary education facility is in a different part of the world, a career opportunity awaits them in a far-away land etc.. Sometimes however, the move is out of vain. Sometimes, children want to leave home for "independence", or because their old-man is a "straggy delinquent". Leaving home is a fairly big decision. In some cases, it can be viewed as the quintessential step for becoming an adult; for becoming independent. It can even shape your life. It's a big decision, especially if your on your own financially. But I'll stop rambling about the importance of making that decision.
Before I continue, why don't you take the time to venture a guess about which group of my friends -the Balkan or the Asian- are insistent on staying at home. Have you met any people from either cultural group to have a better understanding of their opinion? Have you an opinion on leaving home yourself? If you guessed the Balkan, then you are correct! You finally managed to guess something right, eh?
See, my Balkan friends pray to not leave home.
In fact, as I was waiting for the bus one day to go home from my swim practice, I was joined by a Bulgarian friend of mine. I wasn't the first time I had taken the bus with her. She would come with me occasionally when her mother couldn't pick her up. Every time her mom did pick her up however, she would offer me a ride, which I usually declined. She lives in Yaletown: the Balkan district of Vancouver, if you will. She goes to the local high school, which has an ethnic make-up of mainly children of Eastern European descent. Her opinions, as you can imagine, greatly resemble those of her parents, whose opinions greatly resemble those of people from the Balkan region. Her high school is a little taste of our region in Vancouver. But that's beside the point.
On that day of waiting for the bus, we talked about stuff that we usually do. She told me about some of the people in her high school and how they were doing (I had attended elementary with most of those kids, but I ended up being deemed gifted and attending a school on the other side of the city for gifted children, while they stayed close to home.) Regardless, I like to keep in touch and indulge in a little bit of girly gossip - who's dating who, who's behaving erratically, and other stuff of that nature. On that day, she confided in me that her best friend, who happens to be beautiful, was allowing boys to LG hunt on her. My Bulgarian friend told me how she was trying to get her friend to stop returning the flirts, but was unable and asked for my advice. I told her to tell her friend what the coach in the movie Mean Girls had told the class - "Don't have sex because you will get pregnant and die!" She laughed and we kept talking. Somehow, the conversation led to the Bulgarian girl's sister, who had just graduated from high school. I asked what post-secondary institution her sister was going to attend. The girl looked at me with a near crazy look in her eyes and in a low, almost whispering voice, said "she's going to UBC" (the local university). She went on to say that I had spent too much time in my over-acheiveing school, so that I had become accustomed to hearing exclusively Harvard. "I can't believe you even asked that! Of course she's staying at home with us, why would she ever leave? I would never leave home, I just want to live with my mom and my dad for the rest of my life and get married and then live next door! Don't you, or have you become totally 'Asian-ified'?"
It's hard to describe the way someone from that part of the world speaks, but it's very distinct. I've noticed it in myself and in my parents and in my Eastern European friends. Other, exclusively Anglo-Saxon, people have pointed out that the way I speak is odd and "overly passionate". See, had I attended my local school, I would've never even toyed with the notion that I speak in a funky way. I also debate, and the only critique I ever get is that I am too passionate during my speeches. It's funny, I never knew you could be overly passionate in a debate, but I guess I was wrong. Okay, I can empathize with the Anglo folk. I speak in a way that is a little "over-the-top". I look like I am about to murder the opposing team in order to get the judges to agree with my proposition. To someone who has grown up in a sterile society, where fieriness is seen as a sign of weakness, I can imagine that someone's desperation and pleading of a case in my manner can seem intimidating. Personally, I think that it's an air about the speaker, which distinguishes them more than the words. This air is what attracts me to speaking to fellow Balkaners. It's just that "it" factor, which makes me feel at ease and understood and happy to talk.
I've rambled again. Let me get back to the point.
Remember how I talked about Videoflow at the start of this post? Well, remember how I mentioned that one good thing that came of it? A song called Mother and Father by a band from New Zealand called Broods. In the song, the woman says "And ever since I left my mother / It's much harder to know / How to live my own life here / How to make my own home". The lyrics got me thinking. Thinking about the things all my Balkan friends had said, especially the Bulgarian one.
Due to the fact that I hadn't attended a school with people of my own region in a while, my feelings about staying with my parents during adulthood hadn't been as strong. I hadn't really thought about it. I knew it was looming, but accepted it as a necessary evil of growing up.
After listening to the song a few times, reading the lyrics and so forth, I came to the realization that I never want to leave home. It may have been the fact that the song instilled a fear of leaving home in me, or that it just brought me back to my roots - I'm not certain.
Broods sings "I just don't want to wake up lonely / I don't want to just be fine", and neither do I. Life just seems so uncertain without my mom and dad by my side. I just don't know what I would do. I think that I'd feel lost, maybe even pointless. Life alone just seems too scary, too independent.
I have had the pleasure of interacting with children from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds here in Vancouver. I have been inspired by them countless times, not only to write, but to think as well. As much as I love talking, I love listening to other peoples' thoughts, too. The one topic, which despite having been discussed a million times by my friends and I, has never been written about is that of leaving home.
It's a touchy subject for some, and the contrasting views I've heard on the topic are incredible. Nowadays, it is very common for children to leave home after graduating from secondary school. Sometimes, the move is out of necessity - their post-secondary education facility is in a different part of the world, a career opportunity awaits them in a far-away land etc.. Sometimes however, the move is out of vain. Sometimes, children want to leave home for "independence", or because their old-man is a "straggy delinquent". Leaving home is a fairly big decision. In some cases, it can be viewed as the quintessential step for becoming an adult; for becoming independent. It can even shape your life. It's a big decision, especially if your on your own financially. But I'll stop rambling about the importance of making that decision.
Before I continue, why don't you take the time to venture a guess about which group of my friends -the Balkan or the Asian- are insistent on staying at home. Have you met any people from either cultural group to have a better understanding of their opinion? Have you an opinion on leaving home yourself? If you guessed the Balkan, then you are correct! You finally managed to guess something right, eh?
See, my Balkan friends pray to not leave home.
In fact, as I was waiting for the bus one day to go home from my swim practice, I was joined by a Bulgarian friend of mine. I wasn't the first time I had taken the bus with her. She would come with me occasionally when her mother couldn't pick her up. Every time her mom did pick her up however, she would offer me a ride, which I usually declined. She lives in Yaletown: the Balkan district of Vancouver, if you will. She goes to the local high school, which has an ethnic make-up of mainly children of Eastern European descent. Her opinions, as you can imagine, greatly resemble those of her parents, whose opinions greatly resemble those of people from the Balkan region. Her high school is a little taste of our region in Vancouver. But that's beside the point.
On that day of waiting for the bus, we talked about stuff that we usually do. She told me about some of the people in her high school and how they were doing (I had attended elementary with most of those kids, but I ended up being deemed gifted and attending a school on the other side of the city for gifted children, while they stayed close to home.) Regardless, I like to keep in touch and indulge in a little bit of girly gossip - who's dating who, who's behaving erratically, and other stuff of that nature. On that day, she confided in me that her best friend, who happens to be beautiful, was allowing boys to LG hunt on her. My Bulgarian friend told me how she was trying to get her friend to stop returning the flirts, but was unable and asked for my advice. I told her to tell her friend what the coach in the movie Mean Girls had told the class - "Don't have sex because you will get pregnant and die!" She laughed and we kept talking. Somehow, the conversation led to the Bulgarian girl's sister, who had just graduated from high school. I asked what post-secondary institution her sister was going to attend. The girl looked at me with a near crazy look in her eyes and in a low, almost whispering voice, said "she's going to UBC" (the local university). She went on to say that I had spent too much time in my over-acheiveing school, so that I had become accustomed to hearing exclusively Harvard. "I can't believe you even asked that! Of course she's staying at home with us, why would she ever leave? I would never leave home, I just want to live with my mom and my dad for the rest of my life and get married and then live next door! Don't you, or have you become totally 'Asian-ified'?"
It's hard to describe the way someone from that part of the world speaks, but it's very distinct. I've noticed it in myself and in my parents and in my Eastern European friends. Other, exclusively Anglo-Saxon, people have pointed out that the way I speak is odd and "overly passionate". See, had I attended my local school, I would've never even toyed with the notion that I speak in a funky way. I also debate, and the only critique I ever get is that I am too passionate during my speeches. It's funny, I never knew you could be overly passionate in a debate, but I guess I was wrong. Okay, I can empathize with the Anglo folk. I speak in a way that is a little "over-the-top". I look like I am about to murder the opposing team in order to get the judges to agree with my proposition. To someone who has grown up in a sterile society, where fieriness is seen as a sign of weakness, I can imagine that someone's desperation and pleading of a case in my manner can seem intimidating. Personally, I think that it's an air about the speaker, which distinguishes them more than the words. This air is what attracts me to speaking to fellow Balkaners. It's just that "it" factor, which makes me feel at ease and understood and happy to talk.
I've rambled again. Let me get back to the point.
Remember how I talked about Videoflow at the start of this post? Well, remember how I mentioned that one good thing that came of it? A song called Mother and Father by a band from New Zealand called Broods. In the song, the woman says "And ever since I left my mother / It's much harder to know / How to live my own life here / How to make my own home". The lyrics got me thinking. Thinking about the things all my Balkan friends had said, especially the Bulgarian one.
Due to the fact that I hadn't attended a school with people of my own region in a while, my feelings about staying with my parents during adulthood hadn't been as strong. I hadn't really thought about it. I knew it was looming, but accepted it as a necessary evil of growing up.
After listening to the song a few times, reading the lyrics and so forth, I came to the realization that I never want to leave home. It may have been the fact that the song instilled a fear of leaving home in me, or that it just brought me back to my roots - I'm not certain.
Broods sings "I just don't want to wake up lonely / I don't want to just be fine", and neither do I. Life just seems so uncertain without my mom and dad by my side. I just don't know what I would do. I think that I'd feel lost, maybe even pointless. Life alone just seems too scary, too independent.
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